First Published 23rd April 2016, Last Updated 13th January 2019 by Tim Trott

After 34 years on this planet, I finally get why people run. I mean, I always understood why people were running in the park or down the street but it was always accompanied with mockery. "That seems like a painful way to spend time."

I started running after a successful knee operation to fix my knee injury and since the operation, it's never felt better. I decided that this is as good a time as any to start running, to improve fitness, lose weight and eventually complete a marathon.

So armed with the 100% Army Fit training app and the RunKeeper GPS tracking and logging app for I went out for a short run doing interval based training. I mapped out a short circuit which takes me on a few back roads by my house which works out to about 2.6 miles. My first time out I completed the circuit in 35 minutes, not bad considering I haven't run in nearly 20 years.

The next day it felt like every muscle in my body was complaining, but it felt good in a weird way. After a few days recovery I went out again and it hurt a little less. I got into a pattern of running on Saturday mornings and Wednesday evenings, the same circuit, each time getting faster and faster until I got bored and turned left instead of straight on. This new route would take me way out past my previous circuits so I just carried on with the intervals. 40 seconds running, 1.40 walking, over and over. It wasn't long until the voice cues were telling me I'd passed 3 miles and I'd just got into town, ready to head back home. Coming back through a different road I carried on, now feeling some pain and fatigue but only a few miles till I was back home. At the 5-mile voice cue, I was nearly home, ready to slow down and thinking about cooling down and taking in my protein shake when a curious thing happened.

I'm at 5 miles, another mile and a bit and that's a 10k run. So I dug deep and found the motivation and energy to run past my house, running uphill along another road, up to the top. When the voice cue informed me of 7 miles completed, that was it - my first 10k run complete in 1 hour 17 minutes. And surprisingly, I didn't feel all that bad.

Completed my first 10k run

I've since upped my game to run 10k every weekend, with a 5k midweek. When I can get my 10k time to less than an hour I'll look to make it more challenging.

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About the Author

Tim Trott

Tim Trott is a creative photographer, traveller, astronomer and software engineer with a passion for self-growth and a desire for personal challenge.

Hi, I'm Tim Trott. I'm a creative photographer, traveller, astronomer and software engineer with a passion for self-growth and a desire for personal challenge.

This is my website, a place for me to share my experiences, knowledge and photography. I love to help people by writing articles and tutorials about my hobbies that I'm most passionate about. I hope you enjoy reading my articles as much as I enjoy writing them.